Virgin Mobile prepaid cards are sold at a 7-Eleven store in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 7, 2012. Virgin Mobile, one of Sprint’s brands for prepaid, no-contract phone service, says it will start selling the iPhone on June 29. The phone will cost for $549 for a basic model but service will be cheaper than usual, at $30 per month. The iPhone has until recently been restricted to contract-based plans. Now, the floodgates appear open for the phone to enter the prepaid, no-contract market, which is aimed at people with low incomes and poor credit.

NEW YORK — Virgin Mobile USA, one of Sprint’s brands for prepaid, no-contract phone service, said Thursday it will start selling the iPhone on June 29, charging $549 for a basic model.

The high price of the phone comes with an upside: Service will start at $30 a month.

That means the phone, plus two years of service, will cost $1,269, excluding taxes. That’s nearly $800 less than a subscriber would pay for the same phone — an iPhone 4 with 8 gigabytes of memory — if buying it under the Sprint Nextel brand. Sprint charges $100 for the phone and $80 a month for service, excluding taxes.

The iPhone has until recently been restricted to contract-based plans. Now, the floodgates appear open for the phone to enter the prepaid, no-contract market, which is aimed at people with low incomes and poor credit. However, the high initial cost of the phone is likely to be an obstacle. Virgin Mobile sells other smartphones for as little as $80.

Last week, Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket prepaid service, said it would start selling the phone June 22, starting at $400 and $55 a month. Leap’s chief executive said the phone would probably account for about 10 percent of the phones it sells over the next few years. The Associated Press

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